The body of Joy and Roger Membrey’s daughter Elisabeth has never been found. Photo: JasonSouthElisabeth​ Membrey​ has now been gone for almost as long as she lived.

The 22-year-old with the tinkling laugh, sparkling eyes and cascade of dark, curly hair was last seen leaving work at the Manhattan Hotel in Ringwood on December 6, 1994.

The following evening, her parents and boyfriend – worried they hadn’t heard from her – broke into her apartment. Inside, they found a dark bloodstain in the hallway and blood spattered on the walls.

For her parents, Joy and Roger Membrey​, the nightmare of that discovery has never ended.

Although she was certainly murdered, Elisabeth’s body has never been found. Her parents, denied the dignity of burying their beloved daughter, remain in limbo. As they put it, their pain is never far from the surface.

But if they hoped the court system would ease their pain, their hopes were dashed.

Police charged a man with Elisabeth’s murder but, in 2008 after an eight-week Supreme Court trial, 45-year-old Shane Bond was acquitted of murder.

It was not simply the outcome of the trial that stung. During proceedings, the Membreys felt they were simply observers to a process that had very little to do with Elisabeth.

Mrs Membrey, a former nurse, was reprimanded when she went to the aid of a witness who collapsed in the witness box.

The pair was told not to look at the jury; not to smile at them; not to react to witness evidence.

Bond and his family were allowed to examine the evidence against him, say the Membreys. They were not. Journalists were given transcripts of the Supreme Court proceedings; they had to beg copies from the media.

“It wasn’t our case,” Mr Membrey says. “We were reminded of that many times, that we were lucky to be there in the eyes of other people. It was all about our daughter [but] we were not even allowed to open our mouths or smile or anything. It was just pathetic, the whole thing.”

Australia’s criminal justice system is an adversarial model that focuses on the prosecution, and defence, of people accused of a crime. Because of this, critics say, the search for “justice” can be a bruising and even re-traumatising experience for victims and their families.

In October 2014, then attorney-general Robert Clark asked the Victorian Law Reform Commission to investigate whether victims should be given a role before, during and after a criminal trial and whether they should be allowed to be more involved with the criminal process.

“For centuries, the common law has regarded victims of crime as little more than witnesses in cases that are brought by the Crown against alleged offenders,” Mr Clark said at the time.

The inquiry has attracted more than 40 submissions from legal and lawyers’ groups, individuals, police and the courts, with most calling for greater roles for victims and their families in the court process.

For Joy and Roger Membrey, change can’t come soon enough.

“There needs to be change,” says Mrs Membrey. “We felt like we were in a horror movie.”

The Law Reform Commission will report to the Victorian government in September.